Chapter 84:- End of the Clan

In the end, the girls settled on something less extreme. They did not put any blindfolds on his eyes. But he was told to head his head down. 

Given how handsome Naruto is, he has been getting flirtatious looks from many women. The ones who wore almost no clothes were especially bold. These women would approach Naruto. If not for Sakura, Sarada, and Hanabi joining hands to take a stance, by now, Naruto definitely would have been pulled into one of the Love Hotels. 

This is why Naruto was surrounded by the three. Sarada was walking in front. She would coldly glare at any vixen who would look at Naruto. Hanabi and Sakura were on their right and left sides. 

Like this, the girls visited many places in the town. They weren't here for sightseeing, though many tourists come here to see the Tanzaku Castle located at the center of the City. They were here for shopping.

Without even realizing it, more than 4 hours had passed. It was close to 9 but the girls showed no sign of stopping. Though, Naruto did use this opportunity to buy some things for his mother, Karin, her mother, and some things for his friends. 

"Excuse me, I need to go to the washroom....!!"

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Scene Change______

Fu....!!

"Finally.....!!" Using a clone, Naruto left them behind. 

Naruto had to do this for his mental peace. Besides, he also wanted to explore the city on his own. 

"There is much to see at this moment since, by now, almost all of the shops have closed. Only the gambling hubs and the drinking places are open." One good side to this is that the street appeared less crowded than in the evening. 

So Naruto continued walking around Tanzaku town for about 40 minutes. He kept walking without any aim or destination. He took the direction that he found most pleasing. As he continued like this, he suddenly stumbled upon a restaurant that was still open at this hour.

As he walked by the restaurant, Naruto noticed two familiar people sitting inside the restaurant. The restaurant was quite small, and the building structure appeared old and shabby, giving the impression that it hadn't been maintained or cleaned in a long time.

There were many cracks in the walls, and the paint had worn out. Grass was growing by the restaurant's walls, and he even noticed a few rats running here and there. 

Seeing the restaurant, Naruto initially thought of having dinner there but later changed his mind when he saw its bad condition. 

'Wait.....a minute.....!!' Naruto had walked past them but then he realized something and retreated a few steps back to take a second look. 

Seeing them and confirming that it was them, he froze for a second. He can see their faces through the old glass wall. This glass wall might be the only good thing about this old and shabby restaurant. 

'So they were here all along.' Naruto wasn't that much surprised. After all, in his previous world, he had come to this town in search of Tsunade with Jiraiya. They did find her in this town. 

'I guess she never really moved from this Town.' Naruto thought while watching Tsunade and Shizune. 

'Then again, I am not that surprised to see them here since this town is very famous for gambling and for attracting gambling addicts. One might even say that this town was the gambling Capital in the Land of Fire.'

'The Legendary Sucker was here all along.' 

Seeing Tsunade and Shizune, Naruto began to think. 'Originally, I had planned to find Tsunade and Sister Shizune right before the Chunin Exam. With them in the village, the village would have been more prepared for Orochimaru's invasion. But since fate has brought them before me, I guess, I should strike while the iron is hot.' 

With that thought, Naruto entered the restaurant. 

Ding.....!!!

IRASSHAIMASE!!!!

After entering the restaurant, Naruto frowned but that quickly disappeared. He frowned because the condition of the restaurant was even worse inside. The interior of the restaurant wasn't kept clean. There were only two staff one was at the counter and the other was working in the kitchen and also serving the customers. In short, this isn't the type of place where the Princess of the Senju clan would come to have dinner. 

No matter how broke Tsunade became from gambling, she would never come to such a place to dine unless she was totally broke and had no other choice. 

'This makes the situation a lot better.' Naruto grinned as he felt that he could use this situation to his advantage and make her return back to the village. 

With that thought, Naruto approached Tsunade and Shizune. They were sitting at the second-last table near the glass wall. Their table was empty, which indicated that they hadn't ordered any food yet or their order was yet to be served. 

As Naruto appeared, Shizune looked at him. Seeing his handsome face, her cheeks slightly turned red. 

'What a Handsome man. I have never seen anyone as Handsome as him.' Shizune thought to herself. For the first time in her life, Shizune felt that it wouldn't be better to commit herself to a relationship. 

"Do you need anything?" Seeing that Naruto was wearing the Konoha's headband, Shizune's tone was very friendly. If it was someone from any of the other major villages, then her tone would have been this friendly even if he was the most handsome man that she had seen. 

"Hello, I am from Konoha. I am here to talk with Lady Tsunade." Hearing this, Tsunade finally raised her head and took a good look at Naruto.

When her eyes landed on his face, the first thing that she thought was.....'He looks so similar to Minato, but his bright red hair reminds me of Kushina.' For a second, Tsunade even wondered if this young man was related to them in any way, but when she remembered that those two didn't have any relatives alive in this world, that wondering thought disappeared. 

"Who are you? And why are you here?" Tsunade's tone was neutral. She was neither friendly nor cold towards Naruto. Perhaps her attitude would have been much colder if Naruto was from another village. 

"I am Naruto." 

"Naruto-kun, please sit down." Shizune politely offered him the empty chair next to her. 

After he sat down, both women stared at him and waited for his next words. Which was the answer to the question of why he was here and what his purpose was. 

"Actually, I am not here for you. I was here with my team. We decided to stay here for the night after completing our mission. While walking around the town, I spotted you and Sister Shizune here." Shizune was happy that Naruto called her sister. 

She had a small smile on her face due to this. While Tsunade didn't take Naruto seriously. She looked kind of drunk. 

"Known as the Legendary Sucker, I assume that you two are here because you lost all of your money in gambling." Hearing this, Shizune felt embarrassed, but Tsunade was too thick-skinned to feel embarrassed. If his words made her feel embarrassed then she would have given up on gambling a long time ago. Because of how often she loses. 

"So what?" Tsunade refused to appear weak in front of this brat. 

"Did the village stop allowing you to sell the Senju Clan's assets to raise funds?" Naruto looked at Shizune and asked. In his previous world, he had come to learn of just how bad her addiction was. She basically wiped out the entire Senju clan's wealth in gambling. So he assumed that she was doing the same in this world. Otherwise, how would she have the funds to gamble? It wasn't as if she had some sort of money making business or she was actively completing missions. 

"Lord Hokage banned Lady Tsunade from selling any assets of the Senju Clan."

Hearing this, Naruto was surprised. "The Hokage has the authority to do that?" Naruto asked looking very surprised. He had no idea that the Hokage had the authority to do something like this. As far as he knows, the Hokage can never or doesn't have the authority to meddle in the affairs of any cleanse in the village. This is why Naruto was so surprised. 

"I thought that Hokage of the village did not have any authority to meddle in the affairs of any clan in the village." This law was passed in the founding days of Konoha so that each major clan in the village could retain its power, authority, and unity. 

The Senju clan is the only founding clan of Konoha that is going to become extinct. Now, it's important to distinguish between going to be extinct and has become extinct. The clan hasn't become a thing of the past yet. Other than Tsunade, there were still around 50 pure-blooded Senju clan members left. But the problem was, in the 3rd great Ninja War, too many Shinobi from the Senju clan died. In fact, in the 1st Great Ninja War and in the Second Great Ninja War, the Senju clan suffered the most casualties among all major clans. So since the founding days of Konoha, the Senju clan's number has been rapidly declining. 

After the 3rd-great Ninja War, the ones that were alive were the old, retired, and disabled clan members. Another big factor that contributed to the loss of the Senju clan was the fact that since the Village's establishment, the First Hokage openly encouraged his clan members to mix into the village. Meaning, the clan members were allowed to marry outside of the clan and settle into the village. The 1st did this to tie the Senju to the village on a closer level.

Unlike other clans, like the Uchiha and the Hyuga, that forbade marriage outside of their clan (Exogamy), The Senju of the Forest never did this. Even after the fall of the 1st, the second or the upcoming Patriarchs of the clan never changed this law. 

With all that fact, currently, there were only around 50 pure-blooded Senju clan members left aside from Tsunade. As the granddaughter and uncle of the 1st and second Hokage, she is naturally the current Head of the clan, but she is yet to fulfill her role as the clan Head. After all with less than 50 members of the clan left alive and with all of them being retired or not being a Shinobi, there wasn't much for her to do as the clan leader. Besides, the personal trauma of seeing her family members die and the loss of her brother really shook her. 

It can be said that the village is the Senju since so many Senju clan members has mixed with the villagers and form their own families. 

"Did the law change?" 

"No, the law did not change." Shizune shook her head and said. 

Meanwhile, Tsunade completely looked unbothered by their conversation and started drinking from the cheap bottle of alcohol that she was given. 

"You see, the situation with the Senju clan is special. The clan is in decline. If Lady Tsunade keeps on selling the clan's assets, then the rest of the members won't have anything left. So the Hokage-same had no choice but to intervene and ban her from selling anything. Unless Lady Tsunade returns to the village and takes on the role of managing the Clan's affairs, she will be banned from accessing the clan's assets." 

"That stupid old bastard.....!!!" Tsunade angrily slammed the glass on the table. She was pissed about this rule as well. When she learned of this new rule through a letter, she wanted to run back to the village and beat the living F*** of him. But the reason she left the village was to heal or, more like, to escape sadness. She is wasting her life by drinking and gambling. She did not have many regrets over wasting her clan's assets since, in 10 to 20 years, everyone all of the old members would die. 

"So, right now, you two don't have any cash?" Hearing Naruto's question, Tsunade froze but slowly nodded her head. 

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[Tsunade Image]

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